Kym: Welcome back to the Cozy Corner, Lynn! Lynn: It’s so nice to chat with you again. 🙂  With three working series, you are one busy woman! What keeps you on track the most? I do a lot of planning. A. Lot. I use Asana to track the projects – like writing a book. Or planning my release. It sets up dates to check in as well as gives me check list inside each project to backward plan the process. I have a google/phone calendar (as well as a day job online calendar) and I’m good at blocking out big things. Like deadlines.  And releases.  The other thing is I’m not afraid to re-plan/re-organize if things go sideways. (Like a few months ago when a novella took me twice as long to write as it was planned for. New series, I needed more time but I hadn’t planned for it. The good news is I had some free writing time that I could move somethings around.  Since book 4 in the Tourist Trap Mysteries, you’ve done two novellas in-between each full-length book. That alone is an incredible pace without sticking your other two series into the mix, and you’re the…

A murder is brewing. It’s not merry angels gathering to sing carols on this silent deadly night. It’s Laura Bradford, Emily Brightwell, Vickie Delany, Kate Kingsbury and Anne Perry weaving mysterious murders into magical reads for the holiday season. In cozy mysteries, there’s a delicate balance between the dark reality of death and a festive holiday celebration, but these women do it magnificently. From London to New York, and the English countryside to the Pennsylvania plains this season’s best are entertaining delights to be read any time of year.  The relatability of their characters draws me in every time, and this season is no exception. Regardless of the era, readers can walk the halls, shop the shops and adore the decorations in the hotel lobby as they become ensconced in the investigation of a perfect cat and mouse race to the end. Join me in a little merriment, murder and mayhem wrapped up in a cozy package for the holidays. A KILLER CAROL by Laura Bradford Amish Mystery #7 Heavenly, PA has been transformed into a Christmas wonderland, and Claire is delighted to celebrate the season. . . but a fiendish killer has other plans in this all-new installment in the…

No matter the season, there’s alway a perfect hat, especially if it’s designed Sandra Bretting’s Missy DuBois. This super sleuth knows how to solve a mystery in style and her latest caper definitely takes a bite out of crime down South in Louisiana. This is Ms. Bretting’s fifth mystery in the series and it’s one of my favorites. (Although I’m not a fan of alligators–yikes!) ALL HATS ON DECK by Sandra Bretting A Missy DuBois Mystery #5 No Southern wedding is complete without a special veil designed by Louisiana hat maker Missy DuBois. But it’s hats off to Missy DuBois when she tries to save her town from a bayou killer . . .    When Ruby Oubre asks Missy to advise her grandson on a business idea, the successful owner of Crowning Glory is happy to oblige. After a quick jaunt down the river, Missy meets with eighteen-year-old Hollis about the viability of opening an alligator farm for tourists. But it isn’t an alligator Missy finds floating at the mossy bottom of the Atchafalaya River. It’s Ruby, and her death wasn’t caused by accidental drowning. It seems everyone from local tour boat operators to the chief of police and…

I think every reader has run across a series or two (or three or four) they didn’t want to end, with heroines they wanted to go to battle with, and heroes they couldn’t help but love. That was the way I felt about the Lola Cruz Mysteries. Lola was feisty and fun, and the series gave readers one caper after another. But then it ended, and tears were shed. How could I say goodbye to these wonderful characters? The good news? Not all good things must come to an end! Books one through three were re-released earlier this year, and when that happened, I immediately pre-ordered book four–what a treat to finally get What Lola Wants in my library! And what better way to celebrate than to interview the creator, Melissa Bourbon;) Kym: Welcome back to the Cozy Corner! For fans of Lola Cruz and Camacho and Associates, thank you for bringing back this awesome Latina PI! Did you have the fourth book in the series plotted out in your mind during the last couple of years she’s been on hiatus? Melissa: I’m so excited Lola’s back, too! I actually had plotted part of What Lola Wants a few years ago,…

Can it get any hotter? Yes, it can! Luckily, I’m talking about mysteries on my bookshelf and not the temperatures outside. (I refuse to listen to the weather reports at this point.) The books I’ve chosen this month are heating up the charts and bringing a biting blast to enflame your imagination. July started out rather nicely with temps below normal, and a novel release of a curious cat prowling around in Booking a Crook! Laurie Cass’s ninth Bookmobile Cat Mystery will have you dreaming of creating your own snow angels (preferably not the ones that accompany dead bodies) and wondering if it can actually get cold enough outside to make your teeth chatter as Minnie Hamilton struggles to keep her bookmobile on the streets of Chilson, Michigan. The name of the midwestern town alone should help you feel the chill in the air, but if you’re still looking for goosebumps, imagine looking at the people you’ve known your entire life as murder suspects. The shocking twist at the end is guaranteed to freeze the blood in your veins! BOOKING THE CROOK by Laurie Cass Bookmobile Cat #7 It’s all paws on deck as a librarian and her rescue cat…

Everyone has renovations they want to do, have to do, or are forced to do. We chose to do multiple renovation projects with one scheduled right after the other. I spent months choosing the right contractors. Some more expensive than others, but all of them with good reputations for the work they did and the timelines they kept. I even scheduled Murphy’s Law into my master plan. We were going to be done by May first. It’s Memorial Day and we still have contractors coming and going. My office has been covered with plastic for two weeks. Before that, it was loaded with furniture and boxes for a month. The month before that, it was empty. The last time I got to sit at my desk and write, was the last week of January. I’ve actually missed most of spring, not because of the weather, but because I’ve been working my butt off and keeping contractors inline, on time, and Murphy out of my blasted projects. (Ha!) The time that I’ve missed away from my work, I’ve actually gained in reading. It a known fact that I can get interrupted while I read, but if you interrupt me while I…

Everyone has someone they aspire to be when they grow up, but when exactly is a person grown-up? I know I have much growth still waiting for me, even if the wrinkles on my face say otherwise! And maybe that’s where the fountain of youth can actually be found—in one’s desire to continue to be more. Ann B. Ross introduced readers to such a woman in her Miss Julia mystery series. A woman set in her ways, until life threw her a whopper of a curve and made her look at herself in a much different light—a bright, glaring light that showed dust-bunnies and cobwebs no gently-bred Southern woman wants to be exposed! The way Miss Julia deals with her exposure is something to see—or read, and I had to interview the woman behind the brilliance. I hope you to will enjoy Miss Ann B. Ross unplugged;) Kym: Welcome to the Cozy Corner Ann! Ann: Thank you for having me, Kym. Kym: Your latest novel, MISS JULIA TAKES THE WHEEL releases April 2nd and is your twentieth Miss Julia novel. What do you think makes Miss Julia so popular with the readers? Ann: It’s still amazing to me that she…

It’s almost time for spring, right? Well, don’t put up those sweaters and galoshes anytime soon, and keep those shorts stored for now. I think that groundhog fooled us all last month. Instead, embrace the cold, or snow, or the rain and dig into a good mystery this month. I’ve got a few I didn’t feature last month you don’t want to miss, and some great mysteries releasing in March that will take up those last few (hopefully) chilly days Mother Nature has decided we can’t do without. After all, Mother does know best. Father Time is just making the season seem dramatically long 😉 LIVING THE VIDA LOLA by Melissa Bourbon A Lola Cruz Mystery Meet Lola Cruz. After paying her dues as an intern, she’s now a full-fledged detective at Camacho and Associates. Her boss is Manny Camacho, a muy caliente former cop with a mysterious ex-wife, a Lara Croft look-alike girlfriend, and a sudden personal interest in Lola. Her first big case? A missing mother who may not want to be found. And to make her already busy life even more complicated, Lola’s helping her cousin plan her quinceañera and battling her family and their old-fashioned views…

I met one of my favorite cozy authors this past fall. Lynn Cahoon is as entertaining in person as she is on the page and I just had to hit her up for another interview. Check out why Lynn can make the pages keep turning for her readers! Kym: The last time I interviewed you at the Cozy Corner, you had one series and you were starting on your second. Now, you have three mystery series all going at once plus two romance series under Lynn Collins. How do you keep track of the different characters, their quirks, series businesses, and locations? Lynn: Keep track? I’m not sure I do. I’d love to say I have an extensive series bible that has all the characters, their likes, their hair color, when they came into the series, etc. I should have a series bible. But honestly, I do a lot of seek and find in the prior books to make sure I’m remembering things right. And, if I’ve timed it right, I’ve just read the last book in the series for copy edits or page proofs when I start the next one. Kym: We finally met in November at the Kensington…

It’s my favorite time of year…I get to choose my favorite cozies released in the past twelve months!  And yet, it’s the hardest thing to do, almost like looking at all of the ornaments on my tree and trying to decide which ones I like the most. Since they all belong to my kids and were gifts from my parents who have been gone for too many years, it’s a monumental task, emotional and heart-warming. Like our ornaments, each mystery I’ve featured, along with the books featured on the Cozy Corner by guest authors, has a special place on my bookshelf. Whether it be the hardback, paperback or the ebook, I tend to keep more than I should so that I can go back and reminisce about the wonderful experience. Maybe I should start a tree with book ornaments—my very own Charli Rae and Scarlet would love that in the Book Barn, don’t you think? Princess the armadillo, however, would probably root through the ornaments and knock over the tree. Goodness, but I do see a holiday novella scurrying through my brain for next year! Without further ado, I give you my favorite mysteries and blogs of 2018! Teen Drama…